Leading scientists on Thursday called on the upcoming Rio Summit to grapple with environmental ills that they said pointed to “a humanitarian emergency on a global scale.”
In a “State of the Planet” declaration issued after a four-day conference, the scientists said Earth was now facing unprecedented challenges, from water stress, pollution and species loss to spiralling demands for food.
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Climate change is amplifying risks from drought, floods, storms and rising seas, threatening all countries but small island states, poor nations and arid regions in particular, UN experts warned on Tuesday.
In its first-ever report on the question, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said man-made global-warming gases are already affecting some types of extreme weather.
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Lloyd’s of London insurance market on Wednesday posted its second-largest annual loss owing to record claims for catastrophes including Japan’s earthquake disaster and floods in Thailand.
The company suffered a pre-tax loss of £516 million ($822 million, 615 million euros) in 2011 on soaring claims, Lloyd’s said in a results statement. That compared with a profit before tax of £2.195 billion in 2010.
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The Greenland icesheet is more sensitive to global warming than thought, for just a relatively small — but very long term — temperature rise would melt it completely, according to a study published on Sunday.
Previous research has suggested it would need warming of at least 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, in a range of 1.9-5.1 C (3.4-9.1 F), to totally melt the icesheet.
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Around 1630 BC, a super-volcano blew apart the Aegean island of Santorini, an event so violent that some theorists say it nurtured the legend of Atlantis.
More than three and a half millennia later, the big blast is yielding forensic clues which help the search to predict future cataclysmic eruptions, scientists said on Wednesday.
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A major United Nations report has called for a sustainable “evergreen revolution”, warning that time is running out to ensure there is enough food, water and fuel to meet the needs of the world’s rapidly growing population.
In a grim warning about the earth’s increasing demand for resources, a panel led by the presidents of Finland and South Africa found demand will grow exponentially as the global population rises from 7 billion people to an expected 9 billion by 2040.
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LONDON, Jan 26 (AlertNet) – Picture this: a terrible drought forces you to abandon your meagre plot of farmland, so you migrate to a city where the jobs are, only to end up living in a slum regularly submerged by floods.
It’s a scenario that’s going to become more and more familiar in coming years as climate change and rapid urbanisation play an ever-greater role in shaping humanitarian crises, according to an AlertNet poll of the world’s biggest aid organisations.
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Petrol is already beyond the price range of many Africans while surging population levels should force governments in Asia to limit car use, political and business leaders said Wednesday.
While economic gloom in the eurozone is the most immediate concern of delegates gathered here for the annual Davos forum, the challenge of feeding and powering an ever expanding planet is the main long-term headache.
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..Rising oil prices and chilly economic times are prompting increasing numbers of Greeks to chop down trees for winter warmth, a group of forest engineers warned Tuesday.
Nikos Bokaris, a spokesman for the Panhellenic Union of Forest Engineers, said the debt-wracked nation’s forest ecosystems were not yet under threat, but urged the government to act quickly to prevent broader damage.
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The price of basic foodstuffs hit a record high in 2011, with the cost of cereals surging by more than a third over the last 12 months, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation said on Thursday.
The FAO said that its monthly Food Price Index averaged 228 points in 2011, the highest level since records began in 1990, although prices did slide by some 2.4 percent in December. The previous high was in 2008 at 200 points.
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Wind turbine giant Vestas said Thursday it would slash 2,335 jobs, leaving Denmark’s government red-faced after it made “green technologies” a top priority of its just-launched EU presidency.
Beyond those redundancies, another 1,600 people in the United States may be fired if a tax credit was not extended, the group warned.
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The United Nations is calling for about $28 million in funding to help those affected by last weekend’s devastating tropical storm in the southern Philippines.
The UN has likened the scene in the region after tropical storm Washi to the impact of an inland tsunami.
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A Dutch laboratory claiming to have developed a deadly strain of bird flu wants to publish its research, sparking fears that terrorists could use the information.
Scientists at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam say they have been able to mutate the H5N1 virus so that it can be transmitted through the air.
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A small earthquake occurred in Lancashire over the weekend, seismologists have confirmed.
The British Geological Survey (BGS), which records all earthquakes across the UK, said the epicentre was five miles (8km) south-east of Blackburn.
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Dramatic and unprecedented plumes of methane – a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide – have been seen bubbling to the surface of the Arctic Ocean by scientists undertaking an extensive survey of the region.
The scale and volume of the methane release has astonished the head of the Russian research team who has been surveying the seabed of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf off northern Russia for nearly 20 years.
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The disasters that plagued the globe this year will send 2011 into the record books as the most costly year for catastrophes on record.
Japan’s powerful tsunami, earthquakes in New Zealand, floods in Thailand and a series of severe tornadoes in the U.S. all contributed to $350 billion in disaster losses, according to a new estimate from reinsurance company Swiss Re AG.
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Video Report: Dozens of shattered communities in Japan are facing the difficult decision on whether to rebuild or relocate one [...]
Video Report: Flood levels around the New South Wales city of Wagga Wagga have begun falling, but residents have been [...]
Video Report:Thousands of residents remain isolated by floodwaters along the New South Wales north coast as the threat moves inland.About [...]
Video Report:Aerial views show the destruction left behind by typhoon Washi after it lashed the southern Philippines, killing over 250 [...]
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